Vibration energy is experience by many types of apparatuses and systems, and particularly with mobile platforms such as aircraft, land based vehicles, marine vehicles, rotorcraft, etc. Various attempts have been made to harvest such vibration energy to generate electric signals that can be used for various purposes, for example for powering actuators, sensors, or various other electronic devices.
Present day energy harvesting devices and methods, however, are not particularly sensitive to vibration energy over a broad frequency range. Often, present day energy harvesting devices must be designed with a specific operating frequency, or a specific, relatively narrow frequency operating range in mind, to provide acceptable energy harvesting results. Additionally, many present day energy harvesting devices are not especially sensitive to low amplitude vibration signals.
Accordingly, there still exists a need for an energy harvesting device and method which is responsive to vibration energy over a wide frequency band and at low amplitudes. There further exists a need for an energy harvesting apparatus and method that can be implemented with a relatively small number of independent component parts.